Selflessness
by Clairei
Summary: A depressed Sanji discovers quite a few new things about his captain. [SanjixLuffy with hints of UsoppxNami, ZoroxVivi]


Disclaimer: One Piece and its wonderful characters belong to Eichiro Oda.

Warnings: This fic has hints of a homosexual pairing and two weird het ones. Please, don't review with stuff bashing them. However, concrit is very welcomed!

Wintergreen was a quaint little town located somewhere deep inside the Grand Line. Though the street leading to the wharf was lined with several shops and restaurants, which was intended to lure weary seamen.

Sanji walked rather slowly down the cobblestone walkway. His hands were buried deep in his pockets and his head was bowed. Usually, he was never to eager to part away from his kitchen and his duties as a pirate. On that day, however, he had been the first one to depart from the Going Merry as soon as it docked.

The chef thought that he could handle any situation. He had fought against some of the toughest pirates that this world had to offer. Even with near fatal injuries and lots of blood loss, he always made it out alive and he would recover quite quickly. At that moment he did wonder why his heart had so much trouble healing while his body simply didn't.

For the longest time, he had devoted himself to serving Nami and trying his best to give her anything her heart desired. Food, clothes, money, anything she asked for, she received from him. In his mind, such acts were supposed to be the sure way to gain any woman's affection.

In his travels, he had met with many beautiful women including the ones that stepped foot on his ship. But for some reason, Nami stood out when compared to the others. Ever since she entered the Baratie on that day long ago, he had set his heart on getting as close to her as possible...physically and otherwise.

Despite his efforts, she was just had no interest in him other than being his friend and crewmate. Lately, he noticed that the navigator had been spending an awful lot of time with the sharp shooter. At first, he thought nothing of it. Soon he would wake up at night, noticing Usopp's empty hammock. During the day, he saw the stares they would give each other. On that day, he caught them in a rather passionate lip-lock as he went into the ladies' cabin to ask Nami what she wanted for lunch. That had been the final straw. Without letting anyone know that he was troubled, he went on with his regular activities until they reached land.

Thoughts of Nami holding hands with Usopp...of hugging him...of smiling at him...of kissing him filled his mind. He felt a knot form in his stomache as he continued to imagine such things occuring.

Before he could take another step further, he heard a voice come from far behind him. "SAAANJI!" Suddenly two hands stretched out from the distance and grappled the street lamp he was standing next to. After a rather loud SPOING, Luffy came charging toward him. Sanji leaped backard to avoid being hit. It turned out that Luffy's body ended up being smacked against the metallic pole. The blonde man simply took his cigarette from his mouth and let out a few puffs as he watched his captain pick himself off.

"What do you want?" Sanji asked coolly.

"Well," He began. "Ya left the ship really fast today! And I wanted ya to make me some more of yer beef stew!"

A grunt was emitted from the chef. "There's plenty of leftovers."

"No there wasn't! I checked!"

With a shake of his head, he said, "I'll make you some more later. Right now, I've got...something I need to take care of."'

"Okay! I'll go with ya and help ya get it done so ya can come back quicker!"

"NO." Snapped Sanji.

The rubber boy tilted his head to the side and stared at him. "Why not?"

"It's something...only I can do."

"Whatcha mean?" 

"It means you can't come."

"Why?"

His head began to throb at the annoying persistence the boy was showing. Though it was against his better judgement, he decided to just let him tag along if only for just a while. "C'mon then." He made a gesture to follow him.

Luffy then tailed him with a big grin plastered on his face. "So what are we gonna do?"

"Just walk."

"That's all? Why did you say I couldn't come in the first place?"

"LUFFY." He said irritably. "Stop asking questions."

All the rubber boy did was shrug. They continued to walk through Wintergreen. Every once in a while, Sanji glanced over at his companion and noticed that he seemed to be in deep thought. It was odd to see him do such a thing. In fact, thinking about that helped him to think less about Nami and Usopp. Sometimes he did notice a somewhat mature side to him. The more he thought about it, the more he came to realize that maybe Luffy could help him in some way, like he had in the past.

"Hey..."

Luffy looked at him. "Yeah?"

"How would you react if..." He felt a surge of embarrassment rise when he began to speak of his predicament.

"Huh?"

After taking a deep breath, he continued, "...Well, if you really liked someone but that person didn't like you the same way you liked them?"

"Hmm." Luffy began to tap his finger against his chin.

Patiently, Sanji waited for him to answer. Several minutes went by and the boy still seemed to be processing the information. "Did you even understand what I meant?"

"Sure did!" He finally exclaimed. "A long time ago I used to really like Vivi!"

The chef cleared his throat. "Excuse me?"

"Yeah! And I really, really liked Zoro, too!"

This came as a bit of a shock to Sanji. That goofball has actually had those kinds of feelings? And toward a man and a woman to boot! He had to make sure that they were on the same wavelength. "Luffy, I meant...not just as friends...but as more."

"Yeah, I know."

Information like that was always a bit hard to swallow especially when it came from the child-like, meat obsessed captain of a pirate ship. Sanji definitly needed to take a seat and went toward an empty bench. As the two sat down, he asked, "So...you...and Zoro? And Vivi-chan?"

"I liked 'em lots. But they liked each other a lot more."

That statement caught him completely off guard. "Wh-what?" Zoro and Vivi might have been an item? How come he never noticed such a thing going on? He figured Nami and Vivi were more likely to be lovers than those two, and he would have been much more pleased to find out that they might have been.

"Uh huh! I did like Zoro for a lot longer, though. Anyway, I saw them together on the deck one night and they were holding hands and talking and smilin' and stuff."

Even though Sanji was curious to find out what 'stuff' they had done, he asked something else. "Didn't you feel bad because they excluded you?"

"I did feel kinda bad at first. Still, I was real happy for 'em!"

"Happy?"

"Yeah! 'Cuz they were happy and the important thing is that they are whether or not I'm the one causin' it."

The words that he spoke made Sanji a bit speechless. Luffy just wanted their happiness? For a boy that liked to fight others for the last slab of beef, he sure seemed selfless when it really did count. There was a newfound fondness beginning to grow for his partner. A smile formed on his lips as he looked over at him. "I see."

"Why did ya ask that in the first place, Sanji?"

"Heh. No reason. Uh, I think...I think I just finished doing what I wanted to do."

"Ya did? What was it?" Luffy seemed to be genuinely confused by his chef's odd behavior.

"Nevermind. Let's go back to the ship. There's a new recipe for steak and noodles I'd like to try out and...you can be the first to taste test it." 

With a triumphant grin, Luffy got up and pulled Sanji up by his jacket sleeve. "WOW! C'mon!"

As the two ran toward their home, they both seemed to be carefree. Sanji knew that he had not completely recovered from the shock of Nami and Usopp's alleged relationship but he knew that he could live with it. No matter what would happen, he had a feeling that Luffy was always going to be there to give him reasons to smile.

End.


End file.
